MOSCOW, August 21. /TASS/. Iranian-American agreements for an exchange of prisoners and the unfreezing of Iranian assets will be implemented within two months, Iranian Foreign Ministry Spokesman Nasser Kanaani said Monday.
"The agreements were signed with an expectation that they will be implemented within two months," he said, according to Iran’s ISNA news agency. "We view the prospects for their implementation on time with optimism, because, according to the information we have, the work in this direction is proceeding well."
He also noted that, in addition to those assets frozen in South Korea, Iran also has financial reserves in neighboring Iraq.
"The handover process for these assets has started, and some of them have already been moved out of Iraq," the spokesman said.
He provided no details, however, regarding the agreement between Tehran and Washington on the exchange of prisoners.
Earlier, Reuters reported that Iranian assets had already been moved to Switzerland and will be converted from South Korean won to euro for further forwarding to Qatar within five weeks.
On August 10, the New York Times reported that the US and Iran had reached an agreement for the exchange of prisoners. The White House confirmed that an agreement had been concluded, but declined to formally announce the completion of the deal while the return of US nationals from Iran is still pending. Under the agreement, Iran will obtain access to $6 billion, which had been frozen in South Korean bank accounts due to US sanctions.
After its withdrawal from the nuclear deal, the US imposed sanctions on Iran, barring eight of the largest importers of Iranian oil, including South Korea, from buying energy from the Islamic republic. Later, Iranian authorities stated that Seoul froze about $7 billion, which Tehran was supposed to receive for oil shipments made in the past several years. South Korea deposited funds for the oil in its banks, but it was unable to transfer them to Iran due to the US sanctions regime.